1945-46 Red Sox/Indians (Feller)
League #5, Pick #6: 47-47
I really wanted the 1943-44 Yankees/Giants team, but barracuda3 grabbed them at pick #4. My other choice besides the team I took, was the 1943-44 Tigers/Dodgers team (d_rock97 took at pick #9). Their pitching is way better than this team but the defense was below league average. This Red Sox team has a strong offense led by Ted Williams (.346/.498/.676 in 707 PA). Ironically, they have three really good full-time shortstops (Pesky, Boudreau, Lake) and I rostered all three and will start one out of position at 3B, since the only decent full-time third baseman is a guy named Don Ross. The pitching and defense is league average, so the offense will need to carry the team.

I hated this pick when I made it, because most of the picks made before mine were teams I had listed very high and was hoping one of them would slide to me. The offense (ranked 9th) is worse than expected. The pitching (ranked 16th) is way worse than expected. Defensively, the team's fielding% is in the top third of the league, but the range is in the bottom third (we'll call us an average defensive team). Overall, this team is ranked 10th in winning% and 14th in ExpWin%. Somehow it's also unlucky (6-11 in 1-run games).

'46 Ted Williams (.337, .483, .609) is 2nd in the MVP race. The rostering of three full-time shortstops with the intention of playing one out of position at 3B has not worked out (I guess good defense at SS doesn't translate to 3B), so I begrudgingly have started Don Ross at 3B. Guess what? He's hitting.307. Eddie Lake has been benched due to poor hitting, so now I'm starting both Boudreau (SS) and Pesky (DH) since both are hitting .340+. On the pitching side, '46 Bob Feller (14-11, 4.31, 139 walks in 224 innings) is my only decent starter and is currently 2nd in Cy Young which is shocking since he's not even in the top 25 in ERA. The other two starters (Hughson, Gromek) are a combined 14-25 with a 6.25 ERA. The bullpen is led by '45 Feller (4-7, 20/25 saves, 3.07 ERA in 44 innings). The other RPs all pretty much suck.

Grade: C-
I mentioned that I considered taking the 1943-44 Tigers/Dodgers instead. Well, I probably should have done that. d_rock took them at pick 9 and they are sitting at 54-40. I really screwed this pick up. Maybe we'll finish around .500 to advance to round 3, but what a waste of a #6 pick. I should've used one of my Top 30 picks on the 43-44 Yankees/Giants team.

1939-40 Yankees/Athletics (DiMaggio)
League #5, Pick #19: 48-46
When I made this pick, I made the following comment "I almost took this team with my last pick (pick #6), so I guess I have to take them with pick #19." Well, thank God I didn't pick this team at pick #6. With every single draft selection I made {except this one}, prior to making the pick official, I would re-build the roster in my team center and make sure I liked the team (all my roster builds went into a spreadsheet, then I deleted the team from my team center - it's not like I have 200 open teams sitting out there). Anyway, for some reason, I didn't rebuild this roster before submitting the pick. I liked how it looked on the spreadsheet, so I just went with it. Yesterday evening after juice announced the league numbers, I went to build this team and that's when I discovered my error. I had accidentally built a Yankees/Phillies team. Crap! Now it makes sense to me why this team lasted until pick #19. Had I realized this, I would have taken the 1945-46 Cubs instead, which went to toysboys with pick #24. This will probably be my worst team.

Well, surprise surprise... This team has a better record than my #6 pick. The offense/pitching ranks are 15 & 14, but defensive range is 1st in the league (around league average in fielding%). Luck has been on the positive side with a 16-9 record in 1-run games. This results in a below average rank of 16th in ExpWin%. This is another streaky team with multiple instances of 1-7 / 2-8 and/or 7-1 / 8-2 runs. At this point, a .500 finish would be welcomed.

The starting pitching is pretty bad. I actually have a guy (Nels Potter) who has the following sim stats: 23 starts, 90 innings, .332/.422/.534 opponent's slash line. 3-12 record, with a 8.67 ERA. This pm game will be his last start. I have a mop-up guy with similar real life stats who couldn't possibly do worse. The offense has 3 hitters worth mentioning... Both Joe DiMaggios are doing ok but are about 200 OPS points worse than real life. Bob Johnson has been good. Fun stat... Frankie Crosetti (.193, .273, .259) leads the league with 35 sacrifice hits.

Grade: B
This team is tough to grade. I wouldn't have taken this team had I built the roster and realized my error. That being said, toysboys' 1945-46 Cubs team is only 44-50 (albeit with some bad 1-run game luck). But my team is treading water and hanging around .500, which is better than can be expected with the 19th overall pick. Again, grading on a curve, so B feels right.

1951-52 Cardinals/Cubs (Musial)
League #6, Pick #1: 45-49
This is one of the few teams across all leagues that ranks high in offense, defense and pitching. They also have a lot of lefty hitters plus I love Stan Musial. Ironically, this team is ranked 2nd in League 6, but there's a reason (which I will divulge later) why I passed on the other team in this league.

Absolutely my worst call ever, for a number of reasons. First, this team was probably going to fly under the radar so there was no need to draft them with the 8th overall Top30 pick. Second, sometimes, numbers lie. Without looking at the numbers, I would have never considered this team. There are no pitching studs, and in fact most of the *good* pitchers are 100-150 inning guys with < 5IP/G. Basically, its a team with a bunch of above average long reliever types. It's been a headache to try and figure out the best way to handle the rotation. I had this team +0.7 STD hitting, +1.4 STD defense and +1.1 STD pitching. The team's actual ranks are 9th hitting, 16th pitching and league average fielding% although top 5 in range. At the 92-game mark, this team would be the only #1 pick to not advance to round 3. The team has won three in a row though, so there's still hope. Overall, they are 19th in the league but with a 14th best ExpWin%.

Offensively, the team is led by '51 Musial (.371, .480, .573) who is currently 3rd in MVP and '52 Musial (.334, .442, .553). Other than Schoendienst (.329), no other hitter has done anything to write home about. The starting pitching has been really bad, as I have two SPs with ERAs over 7. The bullpen guys have been ok as of late. Closer Willie Ramsdell (0.97 whip in real life) was terrible early in the season but has seen his ERA drop from 7.92 to 4.73 due to a current run of 11/13 scoreless appearances. If the starters don't get blown out, having a plethora of slightly above average long relievers should help this team compete in the late innings (15-9 in 1-run games) and maybe we can get above .500.

Grade: D-
This team was sitting at 28-39 before ripping off a 17-10 run to get to where they are at now. The only reason I didn't grade them as an F is that things are trending in the right direction and there is still hope. League 6 is the one league where the correlation between pick# and wins is negative, meaning that the teams drafted later are better than the teams drafted earlier. This team is Exhibit A of that trend.

1949-50 Giants/Braves (Spahn)
League #6, Pick #2: 55-39
This is my second double-up. I actually have this team rated slightly ahead of the 1951-52 Cardinals/Cubs team I drafted at pick #8. The reason I passed them up is because a couple of key players on this team sucked for me on my '36-51 Giants team in round 1. Stud RP Jim Hearn had a 5.83 ERA, and the team's best SP (Larry Jansen) went 10-23 for my 90-72 team. But the raw numbers still says this is the best pitching staff in League 6. The over/under for number of games before I complain about Jim Hearn is 3.5.

I mentioned how the draft-pick-position-to-win correlation is negative for this league. This is only one of two teams selected in the top 8 of this league that are over .500. In fact, this team has the best record in the league. They are on the lucky side thanks to a 15-9 record in 1-run games so as a result, they are ranked 5th in ExpWin%. The balance is there, with a #7 ranking in offense and #8 ranking in pitching. Defensively, they are bottom 3 in fielding% but top 3 in range. I thought they were the best pitching team in the league, so after further investigation... I see this team is ranked #1 in ERA in "away" games, so clearly playing their home games in the Polo Grounds hasn't helped the pitchers. Sure enough, this team is 30-17 away and 25-22 at home. Bad ballpark choice, I guess.

Regarding my comments about Jansen and Hearn. Larry Jansen (7-11, 4.90 ERA) still sucks but Jim Hearn has been mostly good (6-3, 3.16 ERA). He has blown 6 out of 12 save opportunities (these are usually in the 7th or 8th inning). Dave Koslo has been very good as my long reliever (12-4, 8/9 saves, 4.77 ERA) and is ranked 3rd in Cy Young, just ahead of teammate '50 Spahn (15-12, 4.38 ERA). George Spencer can't get much better in the closer role (0-0, 14/15 saves, 1.13 ERA).

Grade: A
I picked this team #2 overall and they have the best record overall, so an A grade seems appropriate. There are 4 other teams within 2 wins, and two of those teams are in the same division as me, so this team may not even make the playoffs. Kudos to Chisock's '57-58 Reds/Giants team (55-39, pick #22) and 3dayrotation's '57-58 Yankees/Senators team (53-41, pick #19).

1967-68 Orioles/White Sox (Robinson)
League #7, Pick #8: 50-44
Well this combo falling to me totally made my day. Like I mentioned earlier, I tried to trade up to get this team. I have them rated right up there with the 1963-64 Dodgers/Koufax team that went at pick #2. Like many of the teams I will eventually draft, this team is a bit weak on offense but very good at pitching and the defense is the best in the league. The downside is that the offense is too right-handed. Also, I just realized that I drafted a lot of Baltimore Orioles teams.

This one was pretty easy to predict. The defense is ranked #1 overall (best range and tied for best fielding%). The pitching is also ranked #1 in the league, and as expected, the offense is terrible (ranked #23). All this results in having the 8th best winning% and 6th best ExpWin%. The biggest issue with this team is losing close games. The team is 10-16 in 1-run and that's a high-water mark as we're 6-1 in our last seven 1-run games.

Not much to discuss with the hitting. Frank Robinson (both clones) are the only offensive players over .800 OPS. I don't expect any player to make it to 100 runs or 100 RBIs. Pitching is where it is at. '67 Horlen (13-5, 2.31 league-leading ERA ) is currently 2nd in Cy Young while '67 Peters (9-5, 3.01) and '68 McNally (10-8, 3.53) have been decent. '68 Tommy John (1.04 whip in real life) has been horrible as my SP4 though (3-8, 5.40 ERA). Eight different pitchers have recorded a save, with Cisco Carlos being the best (19/21, 1.40). The rest of the staff has blown 8 out of 30 save opps which partially explains the poor 1-run game record. I expected more than a 7.82 ERA from Wilbur Wood so his 159 innings of 1.01 whip is being wasted in the mop-up role.

Grade: B+
I picked this team 3 spots ahead of toysboys '61-62 Yankees/Senators team (62-32).. That team's offense is great of course, but I can't figure out how their pitching is so good. I mean how does Ralph Terry allow 32 HRs in 160 IPs (.w opp's OPS = .750) and still have an ERA = 3.82? Meanwhile, my Tommy John has a similar opp's OPS (.756) with way fewer HRs yet has an ERA of 5.40 (with better defense behind him).

1963-64 Orioles/Colt 45's (Robinson)
League #7, Pick #22: 39-55
This team is similar to my '67-68 Orioles/White Sox team, except this team is a worse hitting team, a worse pitching team and a way worse defensive team. Actually, the defense and pitching is above average, just not as good as my other league 7 team. The offense is pretty bad, though. I am starting a guy with a .631 ops# and another guy with a .602 ops# will be playing about 1/3 of the time. Maybe I should have built some more teams. I don't need (or want) all 29 of my teams to advance to round 3, anyway.

Talk about similarities between this team and my '67-68 Orioles/White Sox team. Both teams have great pitching (ranked 6th) and terrible hitting (ranked 24th). Both teams are using a Frank Robinson clone. Both teams can field the ball very well (although the range on this team is below league average). And sadly, both teams lose close games (just 8-22 in 1-run games). Like my White Sox team, this is a high-water mark (4-2 last 6). Between Feb-02 and Feb-16, this team played 17 1-run games and lost all 17. Anyway, this team isn't that good anyway, and like I mentioned in my post-draft comments, I need a few teams to drop out of the tournament. Looks like this is one of them. With a ExpWin% rank of 21st, even good luck probably wouldn't have mattered.

Let's talk about how bad some of the regular hitters are. Walt Bond's offense (.194, 252, .323) is exactly what you don't want out of your 1B/OF. Catcher John Bateman (.165, .216, .199) is in the running for worst hitter in the league. I have exactly one player over a .340 OBP and exactly one player over a .414 slugging. What really irks me is Dick Hall. His real life stats are 88 innings, .188 oav & 0.85 whip. Against many bad offensive teams, his sim stats are: 49 innings, 1-6 records, 5/10 saves, 4.81 ERA.

Grade: D
One could argue that with pick #22, I shouldn't expect much. I could've taken the '63-64 White Sox/Senators (44-50) that went one pick later to BeAllEndAll. That team has a similar statistical profile to my Colt 45s team, but is a bit better at both offense and pitching. And I would kill for a 13-13 record in 1-run games.

Posted by schwarze on 2/23/2023 12:45:00 PM (view original):
1963-64 Orioles/Colt 45's (Robinson)
League #7, Pick #22: 39-55
This team is similar to my '67-68 Orioles/White Sox team, except this team is a worse hitting team, a worse pitching team and a way worse defensive team. Actually, the defense and pitching is above average, just not as good as my other league 7 team. The offense is pretty bad, though. I am starting a guy with a .631 ops# and another guy with a .602 ops# will be playing about 1/3 of the time. Maybe I should have built some more teams. I don't need (or want) all 29 of my teams to advance to round 3, anyway.

Talk about similarities between this team and my '67-68 Orioles/White Sox team. Both teams have great pitching (ranked 6th) and terrible hitting (ranked 24th). Both teams are using a Frank Robinson clone. Both teams can field the ball very well (although the range on this team is below league average). And sadly, both teams lose close games (just 8-22 in 1-run games). Like my White Sox team, this is a high-water mark (4-2 last 6). At one point during the season, this team played 17 1-run games between Feb-02 and Feb-16 and lost all 17. Anyway, this team isn't that good anyway, and like I mentioned in my post-draft comments, I need a few teams to drop out of the tournament. Looks like this is one of them. With a ExpWin% rank of 21st, even good luck probably wouldn't have mattered.

Let's talk about how bad some of the regular hitters are. Walt Bond's offense (.194, 252, .323) is exactly what you don't want out of your 1B/OF. Catcher John Bateman (.165, .216, .199) is in the running for worst hitter in the league. I have exactly one player over a .340 OBP and exactly one player over a .414 slugging. What really irks me is Dick Hall. His real life stats are 88 innings, .188 oav & 0.85 whip. Against many bad offensive teams, his sim stats are: 49 innings, 1-6 records, 5/10 saves, 4.81 ERA.

Grade: D
One could argue that with pick #22, I shouldn't expect much. I could've taken the '63-64 White Sox/Senators (44-50) that went one pick later to BeAllEndAll. That team has a similar statistical profile to my Colt 45s team, but is a bit better at both offense and pitching. And I would kill for a 13-13 record in 1-run games.

Just to show I am paying attention…
The only Robinson on the 63’-64’ team is Brooks. As you know Frank didn’t join the Orioles till 1966 in the now famous Milt Pappas trade.

Holy crap.. You are right. I must have got my two teams mixed up when I was naming them. Also, I just realized that I have no clones on this Colt 45's team. I kind of remember that I did not have any clones on 2 of my 29 teams. For some dumb reason, I changed this team name and added "(Robinson)". They deserve to lose with my stupidity.

1971-72 Orioles/Phillies (McCarver)
League #8, Pick #7: 51-44
This is the league where I screwed up the rankings pre-draft. After fixing the '71-72 Astros/Yankees roster and recalculating all the numbers, there still was no clear-cut "Best Team" (those 71-72 Astros/Yankees were still high, but they went at pick #2). This team is ranked above average in pitching and defense and about average on offense, so overall, the numbers put them at the top of my list of available teams when my turn came up. The pitching is led by '72 Steve Carlton, but no real studs in the pen. Offensively, this team is too right-handed and I don't have a good clone option. I ended up cloning a .252 hitting Tim McCarver just so I didn't waste an Orioles player at backup catcher. I wouldn't be surprised if this team underachieves.

This team is actually doing better than I expected. They are ranked 12th in offense, 3rd in pitching and league average in defense. They have the 7th best record and 5th best ExpWin% (11-14 in 1-run games). Unfortunately, they are in a tough division with two 55-win teams that both got selected AFTER I selected this team. In fact, the A.L. East division leader was also selected after I selected this team. Kudos to mllama54 ('71-72 Cardinals/Royals 55-40, pick 11), barracuda3 ('69-70 Tigers/Braves 57-38, pick 13) and kstober ('69-70 Yankees/Astros 55-40, pick #18).

'72 Steve Carlton (15-9, 2.63, 180 Ks in 233 IPs) is the leading Cy Young candidate. I did expect more from '72 Jim Palmer (9-11, 4.88 ERA). The bullpen has blown 10 out of 28 saves as I don't really have a have a solid closer. When looking at the offense, I don't really have a standout, and I'm surprised my offense is ranked as high as it is. The team batting average of .258 is in the bottom 10, but they walk (4th) and hit HRs (6th), so this is truly the Earl Weaver kind of offense.

Grade: B-
Although the record is decent, I clearly missed out on drafting some better teams. I do think Jim Palmer (.217 oav, 1.05 whip in real life) can turn it around and actually be a positive contributor instead of an "innings-eater". I need Carlton to soak up about 400 innings and keep pitching reasonably well. We still have a shot at the playoffs.

1975-76 Dodgers/Padres (Jones)
League #8, Pick #20: 45-50
This team surprisingly has a high score in my rankings formula, but it's another extreme no-offense-great-pitching-great-defensive team, so I understand why they fell this far. What's really odd about this team is that if you sorted all the pitchers by ERC#, the first six pitchers listed are all starting pitchers with 224+ innings. The relievers suck, the starters are good. Check this out for the top 5 SP stats (totaling 1402 innings) --> ERC# 2.26, 2.33, 2.33, 2.34, 2.40 WHIP# 1.04, 1.05, 1.05, 1.06, 1.06. This includes cloning Randy Jones. So I basically am rostering eight pitchers with a combined total of 1854 innings.

My post-draft numbers had this team ranked 1st in pitching, 1st in defense and bottom 5 in offense. In reality, they are ranked first in pitching, first in range (average fielding%) and last in offense. In fact, they have scored 388 runs and have allowed 388 runs for a .500 ExpWin%. Despite a 15-14 record in 1-run games, they are still below .500 overall. What's cool about this team is the use of Tandems 1, 2, 3. My six starting pitchers are accounting for 98.7% of all innings. Since each two-man tandem has a cumulative total of 540-560 real-life innings, at some point soon, I will start using only the better pitchers more frequently.

My best pitcher is '75 Andy Messersmith. He's thrown 145 innings in 31 relief appearances and is 12-8 with a 3.04 ERA (4th in the league). He's also 5th in the Cy Young race. '76 Randy Jones is 6th in ERA (3.24) but is only 11-13 due to poor run-support. Offensively, this group struggles, ranking last in runs scored, batting average and OPS. Their best hitter is Dave Winfield (.266, .375, .389).

Grade: C
I considered taking the '73-74 Dodgers/Rangers instead and that team is 48-47 with a .537 ExpWin%. Maybe I should have taken them (DarthDurron grabbed them one pick after me). With the 20th pick, the expectations are low. #1 pitching + #24 offense should equal a .500 team and that's what the ExpWin% shows. I have a feeling this team will be riding on the edge of the round 3 bubble the rest of the year.

1981-82 Royals/Astros (Brett)
League #9, Pick #1: 56-39
This was the first team I assembled, even before all the spreadsheet work. Getting all those Astros pitchers w/o having to worry about the 10-player limit was just too good to pass up. DarthDurron confirmed my belief when he commented that this team was his first choice.

This team just got swept by pedrocerrano's '77-78 Royals and now has "only" the 3rd best record in the league but are still #2 in ExpWin%. They are ranked 6th in offense and 1st in pitching. Defensively, the team is top 5 in range and top 10 in fielding%. And they are perfectly average in 1-run games (14-13). This is pretty much what I expected when I drafted this team with one of my top 3 picks overall. Frankly, the offense is even better than anticipated.

With five quality starting pitchers, I've been using '81 Ryan as a long reliever, but he will eventually replace '81 Lary Gura (7-10, 5.78) in the rotation. Dan Quisenberry, Dave Smith and Joe Sambito have enough innings left to get most of the bullpen work. The best SP has surprisingly been Cy Young favorite Bob Knepper (16-3, 3.23). On offense, it's pretty much a doubles/triples type of team as the leading HR hitter is Hal McRae (10).

Grade: A
One of the other teams I built very early in the process was the '79-80 Royals/A's. I liked the makeup of the team and of course, the defense was awesome. But my numbers showed their offense and pitching as being slightly below average. They were the 3rd team taken in this league (ybjsports) and of course, they are the #1 seed in the A.L. (58-37) and have the #4 ranked offense and #5 ranked pitching. I understand their defense helping their pitching, but is their strong defense also helping their offense? I still would've taken my '81 Astros team ahead of them, but I do need to review why some teams are way off on my projections.

1981-82 Braves/Yankees (Gossage)
League #9, Pick #10: 55-41
For most of the draft, I was going with teams that I had already built that I had ranked highly. As teams got taken, I needed to start creating more rosters, to see if I missed any good teams. In this league, I hadn't really looked at anything since I grabbed the '81-82 Astros/Royals team in the Top 30 draft. Now, it was my turn to draft and I had really no idea which team to take. The highest rated team I had already built was the '79-80 Dodgers/Rangers. Now, I'm sure this team will be fine (kstober took them at pick #18), but's it's the type of team I don't like. Good in offense and pitching, terrible defensively, especially range. So I started building more teams, when I came across this team. It fits the "above-average-in-2-out-3-stat-categories-as-long-as-one-is-defense" requirement. Actually, the starting pitching is just ok, the bullpen is very good with a cloned Goose Gossage. Of course, finding this diamond-in-the-rough makes me wonder how many other solid teams I missed out on b/c I simply didn't build the rosters

This team is like a breath of fresh air. I had no expectations and they have surprised me. They are ranked #2 in pitching (behind my '81 Astros team) and #16 in offense. The fielding% is top 10 but the defensive range is bottom 5 (way worse than expected). Overall, this team has the 5th best record and 8th best ExpWin%. The bullpen has been very solid and is probably one of the reasons we are 18-5 in 1-run games. This is one of those teams where I didn't even roster 1000 innings of starting pitchers, so I have to pull guys early to take advantage of all the 100+ inning solid relievers.

My four main rotation ('81 P.Niekro, '81 Guidry, '82 John, '81 Righetti) have started 93 of the 96 games and average only 5.1 innings per game. They are a combined 25-29. The bullpen is 30-12, and both Gossages have been awesome. '82 Gossage is 6-0, 1.53 in 59 innings while '81 Gossage is 27/28 in saves, with 1.61 ERA in only 28 innings. Wait, what? Good relivers are actually doing well for me? That can't possibly be true. Garber, R.May, R.Davis & Hrabosky all have ERAs under 4.00. Offensively, Bob Horner leads my team with 20 HRs and 70 RBIs but has 16 - plays at 3B. Maybe I need to play Nettles more, but that would really hurt an already below-average offense. Nahh... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. He comes in late for defense anyway.

Grade: A
I'm sure some negative 1-run luck is coming, and I certainly can't expect both Gossages to continue their torrid pace. But it's a fun ride that I hope lasts as long as it can. Pick #10 should result in a slightly-better-than-.500 record. More importantly, not a single selection made after this pick has a better record, so I did as well as possible with this selection.

1991-92 Rangers/Orioles (Mussina)
League #10, Pick #8: 52-44
So I started building new rosters and one of the new rosters that I built in this league jumped to the top of the rankings, and I chose not to take them here. The team... the 1989-90 A's/Braves. I have them ranked above average in pitching, well above average in hitting, but way below average in defense. The bullpen (with '90 Eckersley) is great of course. Instead I decided to go with another Orioles team. Like the A's team, this team is above average in hitting and pitching and below average in defense. They are worse than the A's in hitting AND pitching but slightly better in defense. Wait, what? What was I thinking? Dumb pick here. Also, like every other Orioles team I've taken, it's extremely right-handed. Maybe I can get the A's team with my next pick. Nope - they went 4 picks later to Ribbentrop. You're welcome.

Well, I was wrong about that Eckersley-led A's team as they are 10 games under .500. This team is ranked 5th in winning%, but 10th in ExpWin%. A 12-9 record in 1-run games isn't that big of a deal. This is one of my many teams that is better at pitching (6th) than hitting (16th). This team fields it as good as any team in the league, but are average in range. Also a very streaky team with an L8 and a W7 recently. Currently on a 4-8 run though.

I really don't understand why this team is ranked so low on offense as my numbers had them +1.0 STD above average. After some investigation, maybe it's the fact the team is ranked 23rd in walks drawn. Having the 2nd most HRs doesn't mean much if they are all solo shots. Blindly using numbers without context is dangerous. A team full of low-on-base high-slugging isn't a formula for success, while the same exact overall OPS from high-on-base low-slugging guys tends to create more runs. Having 29 teams teams - I simply did not notice this when I selected this team.

None of the hitters or pitchers are really doing anything spectacular. This team has blown 13 saves (23/36). None of the hitters are doing anything worth mentioning either. I am on the verge of benching Juan Gonzalez 43 HRs. HIs sim stats are .260, .299, .509. I have enough HR hitters - I need guys who can get on base.

Grade: C+
Nothing really to add here. Like I mentioned before, I could have taken the '89-90 A's team but that team's horrible defense is killing them. I guess having a 52-44 team with the eighth pick is good, but this is really just a .500 team that has gotten a bit lucky. A 1-9 run is right around the corner.

1989-90 Royals/Cardinals
League #10, Pick #20: 53-43
This was my last team - we had to wait for reddtrain's 24 hours to expire, so this league was behind most of the others. I did spend all the extra time building different rosters. When I found this team, I loved it right away. Similar to most of my late round teams, this team is defense and pitching with little on the offensive end. '89 Saberhagen is one of my sim favorites and '89 Montgomery should be good as a closer. Oquendo, Pendleton, Ozzie are defensive studs in the infield. Add in Coleman and McGee and that's 5 switch-hitters in the starting lineup. (Hold on, I think I need a cigarette after that). Coleman actually hit .295 and will steal some bases. Pedro Guerrero & George Brett will get all the RBIs. I really think this team will do well, especially considering where they were drafted.?

The write-up was 100% on the nose... I love this team. The team is ranked 10th in offense, 3rd in pitching, league average in fielding% but 1st in range They have the 7th best record and the 5th best ExpWin% despite being a lucky 17-12 in 1-run games. At the 96-game mark, there are nine teams with 52+ wins and 6 of those teams are in the AL Central and AL West, so playoffs will be tough.

I didn't see this coming, but my offensive MVP is Jose Oquendo. He leads my team with 59 runs *and* 66 RBIs. He's hitting .324 and also has 14+ plays and only 1 error at 2B. He's not among the top 5 in MVP race though. Milt Thompson is sixth in the league in batting average (.343). On the pitching side, '89 Saberhagen (11-5, 4.09) is finally starting to pitch better after a slow start (5.77 ERA thru 7 starts). He's now 5th in the Cy Young race as he's 9-2 in his last 17 starts. Lee Smith (8.31 ERA) and Dan Quisenberry (8.07 ERA) have been awful. The bullpen has been shaky with 9 blown saves.

Grade: A
Getting the 20th pick to be in the top 7 in winning% is an automatic A.

1995-96 Orioles/Marlins (Brown)
League #11, Pick #3: 46-51
I was fortunate to get this draw, as I had actually considered taking this team in the late Top 30 (after two Maddux teams got picked). Of course, the pitching isn't in the same zip code as those Maddux Braves teams, but the defense is above average and the offense is strong. An added bonus is that I can start as many as 5 switch hitters. Note that the other (available) really good team I liked in this league is the 1995-96 Mariners (great offense), which got taken 2 picks later (which is the main reason I didn't select this team in the Top 30). Fun fact that toysboys pointed out: I get to roster both Baltimore Kevin Brown and Florida Kevin Brown as my clone.

Watching/managing this team feel like being a parent of multiple children where most of your kids are doing great... smart, good-looking, got a good job, some are even married w/their own kids. Then there's that one child who just can't do anything right. C- student in high school, dropped out of college, can't hold a job. Still lives at home. Sleeps till noon. Anyway, I was so excited to get this team in the draft. But everything has been a mess. Ranked 8th offensively and 14th pitching - both below expectations. The defense is top 10 (field%) and top 5 (range). They are ranked 19th in win% and 12th in ExpWin%.

Stud pitcher '96 Kevin Brown. He has been pretty underwhelming, currently sitting at 8-7, 4.72 ERA. He started the year 6-2 then completely tanked. The team was fine early in the year, sitting out 13-6. Then a horrendous run started and seemingly never ended. First a 2-11 run, followed by a 4-8 run... After decent above-500 stretch, another L6 hit, then shortly after that a 1-8 run. We're 8-2 in the last 10, so maybe there is still hope. The other starting pitchers have pretty much sucked too (MUssina, Burkett & A.Leiter are a combined 20-27 with ERAs ranging from 5.65 to 7.13). The bullpen has been awful. Blown 11 out of 25 saves. Low-inning stud pitcher Rick Helling (0.76 whip in real life) is sitting at 0-4 with a 8.56 ERA in 13 innings. The offense is ranked 3rd in HRs and one-year-wonder Brady Anderson has been good (.317, .386, .595, 108 RBIs) - also 4th in MVP race. Most of the offense has been as good as can be expected.

Grade: D
I could've selected the '95-96 Mariners/Mets (58-39) team that barracuda3 grabbed 2 picks after me or toysboys' '97-98 Braves/A's (53-44) that went one pick later. But nooooo.... Instead, I got this no-good, uneducated, can't-hold-a-job team that is continually disappointing me. A #3 pick that may not advance to round 3...